Perth to Broome, Australia

After 6 nights in Perth, I set off on the first part of my journey to Darwin: a 10 day tour with Western Exposure to the beach side township of Broome. The first stop was at Namburg National Park to view the famous Pinnacles Desert, a region of hundreds of limestone pillars, the tallest of which is 4 metres high. After lunch we proceeded to go sandboarding down a steep, large sand dune. Like my previous sandboarding adventures, I yet again found it close to impossible to stay on the board for a significant amount of time. It was immense fun, but the timing of this activity was curious to say the least – literally 20 minutes after I gobbled down three large sandwiches for lunch!

Day 2 began with a disgustingly early 5AM kick off to begin another long day of driving. We stopped at Kalbarri National Park where we took in a stunning view of the river from Nature’s Window, and hiked down into the Z-Bend Gorge (the first of many gorges on this trip) where we chilled for awhile beside the natural pool. However when I think of Kalbarri, the first thing that comes to mind is Kangaroo related tragedy. The driver of another tour bus rammed straight into the oblivious and fairly blind creature, killing her instantly. However, her offspring, the Joey, miraculously escaped. For the next hour or so one of the members of the other tour bus kept the terrified looking fella warm until the park ranger arrived to take him into good hands. It is just one example of road kill that happens all over Australia, on a daily basis. Those Kangaroos don’t watch where they are hopping!

After lunch we set off on a long drive to Shark Bay World Heritage and Marine Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. First up was a trip to Hamelin Pool to check out the stromatolites. If you believe what the scientists say, these unremarkable creatures are the earliest form of life on earth, dating back to 3.5 billion years. While this place would no doubt be heaven for science enthusiasts, to everybody else they look like nothing but a bunch of rocks sitting in shallow water. In fact, one of the girls presented an amusing theory that stromatolites do not exist, that they are just rocks, and the local souvenir shop simply use the term ‘’stromatolites’’ to draw in silly tourists to buy postcards, fridge magnets and 5 dollar milkshakes. These lazy creatures became the subject of numerous jokes throughout the rest of the tour, and I simply cannot fathom why the world renowned travel writer Bill Bryson drove such an enormous distance from Perth specifically to see these things!

However, Shark Bay then livened up dramatically. First up we visited Shell Beach for sunset, a beach made entirely out of small shells, with not a bit of sand in sight. What made this place more remarkable was the fact that we were the only people on this piece of majestic coastline. That is the beauty of the Western Australia, it is completely off the beaten track and for the most part it has not been built up for tourist purposes. The following morning, we headed for Monkey Mia, a tiny beach made famous by the local dolphins who come to shore of their own accord every morning to interact with humans and to be fed. It is quite an extraordinary site witnessing such interaction in a natural environment. People refer to dogs as being the most social creatures of earth, but they were merely bred by humans to behave like this. This behavior by the dozen or so dolphins at Monkey Mia is 100% natural, and I was left awfully impressed by the whole thing.

After another stint of long driving through the wilderness, we stopped at the extraordinary blowholes situated at incredibly isolated coastline. The rugged scenery of the steep cliffs and powerful waves were simply breathtaking, and the blowholes themselves did not disappoint, with the water spraying up to heights of 25 metres. We then continued northwards, past the Tropic of Capricorn to Coral Bay, a tiny town of 150 residents, situated on the Ningaloo Reef, a newly declared UNESCO World Heritage Site.

While not as large as the World famous Great Barrier Reef, it is also not thronged with anywhere near as many tourists. What´s more, the coral on the Ningaloo Reef comes right into the shore, unlike it´s bigger brother on the East Coast. This allowed us to simply hire snorkels pretty cheaply and go snorkeling on the beach, which was a relief because most of the other activities, such as diving with whale sharks, were incredibly expensive. I thoroughly enjoyed snorkeling on this stunning beach and witnessed all sorts of strange looking fish, swimming around and through the large amounts of coral. The next day we continued on to the township of Exmouth. From here we took a journey out to the gorgeous Turquoise Bay, where most of us spent the day snorkeling on the reef once more and chilling out on the splendid beach.

Days 6, 7 and 8 were spent in Karijini National Park, where we spent three nights camping in swags. The idea was to sleep outside under the sparkling stars. However, the first night was bitterly cold, which resulted in the majority of the group suffering from mild insomnia. After that, the sensible decision was taken by most people to sleep under the tents for the remaining nights. Despite the uncomfortable nights in the swag, Karijini was a magnificent place of wilderness. In total we visited 5 gorges: Knox Gorge, Hancock Gorge, Weano Gorge, Joffre Gorge and Dales Gorge. Each was stunning in its own unique way. However, what they all had in common was the ridiculous terrain that one had to tackle in order to get to the bottom. I assumed that there would be a lot of hiking on this trip, but never foresaw myself scavenging over and across steep rocks perched on the edge of cliffs. Extreme caution needed to be taken at all times, and being perfectly honest I felt a little uneasy at certain points. Certainly not something for the faint hearted. Thankfully everybody made it through each gorge without injury. A few of us were amazed that people are allowed to hike this terrain at all, and I was personally disgusted that some parents were bringing their children through these dangerous parts of the gorges.

While Karijini is first and foremost a haven for gorge lovers, there was another activity which we undertook, and that was hiking to the top of Mount Bruce, the second highest mountain in the state of Western Australia, at a little over 1200 metres high. Starting off at 700 metres above sea level, we set off for the top, with the prestigious Western Exposure record of 1 hour and 2 minutes in the back of my mind. The hike was longer than anticipated with numerous flat parts, along with some extremely steep sections. Myself and two of the others from the group made it to the top in 1 hour 14 minutes, a good effort. However, according to our tour guide the woman who made it to the top in 62 minutes was as mad as a bag of dingos, and basically ran all the flat bits. We opted against such lunacy. The record simply wasn´t THAT important.

After Karijini, the final 2 days were pretty quiet, with not a lot to see in the 1000 kilometres or so to Broome. We stayed  at Pardoo Cattle station for our final night of the tour, before arriving into Broome early afternoon on day 10. Here, on Cable Beach, I witnessed one of the most spectacular sunsets in my lifetime.

In total we drove an enormous 4100 kilometres over the 10 days, a perfect example of how vast this incredible country is. Western Australia is particular possesses some of the most isolated communities in the world. A typical day of travelling would consist of 2 hours driving through barren wilderness, stop at a random roadhouse in the middle of nowhere to purchase overpriced crisps, Coca Cola, and the occasional fridge magnet, continue on for another 2 hours of driving through absolutely nothing, stop at something that really shouldn´t be classified as a toilet, another 2 hours driving, and then arrive at some tiny town that Vodafone hasn´t bothered to service. What´s more is the fact that looking out the window at the barren landscape does strange things to one’s mind. You just can’t help daydreaming about all sorts of things when the scenery consists of a desert with nothing but spinifex, gum trees and other rough water-starved vegetation growing on it. But this is what is so amazing about Australia. Despite the fact it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, most of it is so isolated and unforgiving. And of course, there is usually the occasional Kangaroo and Emu hanging around in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t matter how many times you spot these animals in the wild, the novelty does not ware off.

Overall, I had an incredible 10 days and could not recommend this trip and the tour company, Western Exposure (Adventure Tours Australia) high enough. The itinerary was perfect, the sights and scenery were breathtaking, and the food was absolutely top notch. It is very rare that one doesn’t have even a little bit of negative feedback about a tour like this, but I simply cannot think of any. It was perfectly run, and the tour guide was very flexible and relaxed in his approach. Another positive aspect of the trip was the people I travelled with in the tour group. Barring the odd exception, they were an absolute pleasure to travel with, were always up for a laugh, regardless of what time of day it was, and I have made lots of new like-minded friends from Ireland, England, Wales, Germany, Switzerland, France and Australia. In addition I had the great pleasure of being in the company of a couple of the funniest people I have ever met. 

Also, a shout out to our tour guide Simon is much needed. He did a great job encouraging the group to socialize each evening over a few cold beers (or lemonades as he liked to call them) and was not afraid to join in the drinking and general banter. Two of the nights he staged a bus party after midnight, where general mayhem and carnage happened. His positive energy towards his job and willingness to enjoy himself was something that definitely fed into the rest of the group.

Finally, this trip saw the Vengaboys return to the consciousness of many people. This dreadful 1990’s cheesy pop band provided the theme tunes of our trip in the form of ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom’ (or Broome Broome Broome Broome as we preferred to call it) and ‘We’re Going to Ibiza’. Anytime I hear those songs in the future, they will no doubt bring back many fond memories of an unforgettable 10 days.

I now have two days in Broome to relax before embarking on a 9 day journey to Darwin, through the isolated wilderness of the Kimberleys. Each night will be spent camping and some of the sites are so far off the beaten track, that a 4WD is needed to get to them. Only three of the Perth to Broome tour group will be continuing on to Darwin, so for the most part it will be a completely new group. If they are half as good as the people I travelled with over the last 10 days then it is sure to be a memorable trip.

In the words of our tour guide Simon, West is most definitely best!

Perth, Australia

With 12 days of farm work completed, and 76 more days of painfully isolated labour required later in the year, I will be spending the next 7 weeks travelling. It feels like an age since touching down in Melbourne Airport last December, bringing an end to 14 weeks of travel around South America and New Zealand, and no matter how much I adore living in the sporting capital of Australia, there has always been a case of my feet itching to get away again for awhile. The first stop in this odyssey around Western Australia, Northern Territory, and South Korea (I appreciate how random that combination of places is) is Perth.

Perth, the capital of Western Australia, has a population of approximately 1.7 million people, and is the second most isolated city in the world (after Honolulu). In terms of cities with more than one million people, it ranks as number one. Perth is geographically closer to Jakarta, in Indonesia, than it is to Sydney and Brisbane. Quite an astonishing fact. Many people who have never been to Australia are unable to comprehend just how enormous this landmass is. My flight from Melbourne took four hours, the amount of time it would take to reach Riga from Dublin!

However, that is where the fascinating facts about Perth come to and end. The city is incredibly unremarkable and did very little to excite me. Even by Australian standards, the city has very little old buildings symbolising its past. Most were torn down in the mid twentieth century and replaced by soulless ugly apartment blocks and more modern establishments. In addition, the city is incredibly quiet during weekdays, and the centre of town has absolutely no buzz whatsoever, unlike Melbourne where there always seems to be something happening on it's city streets.

There were a few things however that caught my interest. Firstly, the beautiful King's Park, the largest inner city park in the world, containing grassed parkland, botanical gardens, and natural bushland, which stands tall above the city's skyline offering impressive views. Another area of interest is the nearby coastal city of Fremantle, which with its relaxed cute streets offered more of a small town feel than neighbouring Perth. The main attraction here is Fremantle Prison, which was recently classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to its role as a convict site in the 1850s and 1860s. The tour of the prison was good value and offered an interesting insight into life as a prisoner back in the early days of the mid 19th century right up until 1991, when it closed. It still amazes me when I hear about how harmless some of the crimes were that were committed by the convicts from the UK all those years ago. It does not seem fair that somebody should be sent to a far away barren land, on effectively a life sentence (due to the high costs to return home) for stealing some bread from a local baker!

What Perth proudly possesses however, are the world's strictest bouncers. Anytime (and I mean ANY time) one would like to enter a bar or nightclub establishment a passport must be presented at the door. With the exception of an Australian drivers licence, no other identification meets these punters' high standards. It doesn't matter if you are meeting a few friends at 1pm for a Sunday roast, or Tuesday afternoon for coffee, the rule remains - no passport, no entry. To make matters worse, quite often once you present your passport you then go through a process which seems extremely over the top. Firstly your passport is scanned. Then you are led over towards a camera where the necessary mugshot is formed. Worse still, the bouncers here like to take the law into their own hands, and boot people out of their premises for "offences" that would not lead to any eyelids being batted back in Ireland. If you think the bulky, power-trip seeking gentlemen outside pubs in Dublin are bad, then you haven't seen anything yet!

I very much enjoyed my 6 nights in Perth, but mostly due to getting the opportunity to catch up with friends and cousins from home. As a tourist destination the city doesn't offer a great deal, and lags far behind Melbourne, Sydney, and even Adelaide in my humble opinion.

Tomorrow I set off on a 21 day odyssey with Adventure Tours Australia, which will take me up the isolated wonderland of the West Coast and Top End, to faraway Darwin. The camera batteries are fully charged and raring to go. From what I've been told about Western Australia, I'll be snapping non-stop!

Take it easy.

Farm work in Dunkeld and Alexandra, Australia

After living in the buzzing metropolis of Melbourne for slightly over six months, and getting to know lots of new people, I have made the decision that I would like to apply for a second year working holiday visa, which will give me the opportunity to live in Australia until December 2012. I have had a fantastic time in Melbourne and am not close to being ready to say goodbye to this magnificent city permanently. There is however, one barrier between myself and this rather appealing idea, and that is a reluctant, but necessary personal debut into the world of manual labour!

Yes, the Department of Immigration have set down rules that apply to working holiday visa holders like myself, in which one can apply for a second year working holiday visa, if, and only if, the candidate completes three months (88 days) of regional specified work by the time the first working holiday visa expires. To put that into simple English, it means that in order to stay in Australia for another year, I need to relocate to the sticks and work on a farm in extreme temperatures until my back is broken!

My prior experience of farm related labour is limited, and not filled with much personal glory. About 8 or 9 years ago, while on holiday in South Kerry, on the south west coast of Ireland, I was given a fairly simple, yet important job to do. My dad did the challenging part and spent about an hour gathering up approximately two dozen sheep, leading them towards the gate at the bottom of the field. My task was merely to stop the sheep from escaping back up the hill, and to simply lead them out through the open gate. Frustratingly, my dad's efforts were all in vein, as I was completely caught off guard by a group of these confused animals sprinting towards me quicker than Asafa Powell on the anchor leg for the Jamaican relay team. Let's just say that within minutes the sheep were back where they started, at the top of the hill, and I had proven myself to be agriculturally useless, and have not stepped into a pair of Wellington boots since!

So with my not so stellar repertoire of farm related skills to accompany me, I arrived all bright eyed and bushy tailed into Dunkeld, a tiny, sleepy town three and a half hours west of Melbourne, where I was due to spend two weeks with a local family and help out on their large sheep farm. Everything was going smoothly to begin with. For the most part, the family seemed nice, the home cooked meals were adequate, and I got an interesting insight into life in rural Australia.

However, I found it difficult to hide the fact I was a farming novice, and my attempt to hammer nails into a wooden board was particularly comical. My main task related once again to sheep, only this time I didn't have to deal with these jittery creatures directly. Instead, I was assigned the role of shovelling sheep shit out of the wool shed, an absolutely delightful way to spend the afternoon! The other main chore which I was given involved assisting in the construction of tree guards, which are pretty ineffective wired fences designed to stop ravenous sheep from chewing away at newly planted gum trees. I couldn't help but find the entire process a waste of time. The sheep have broken through these barriers before, on numerous occasions, and devoured the helpless trees in the process. Obviously they will do so again!

Unfortunately, once the day's work was complete, rural life on this particular part of Victoria was not hugely exhilarating. To begin with, the farm is located a thirty minute drive from Hamilton, the nearest town of any sort of significance. Secondly, Vodafone deem the area not important enough to provide mobile phone reception, basically blocking off most of my contact with the outside world. And to add insult to injury, the internet connection was astonishingly slow, and the family had an incredibly low monthly download limit, resulting in a few minutes a day of facebook and email time. It is a sad state of affairs when attempting jig-saw puzzles with the entire family is seen as the highlight of the day!

However, five days into my scheduled two week stay and disaster strikes. The family informs me that they don't have any more farm work left for me as it is a very quiet time of the year. Never mind the fact that this is something they should have been able to foresee in advance, I am now put in a sticky situation with regards getting my planned two weeks of regional work done before I go travelling for seven weeks. As I will be short on time later in the year, the more farm work I can get done now, the less pressure I will have at the end of 2011 to get all 88 days completed. Thankfully I was able to find another place, on the other side of Victoria, that were willing to take me for a week, and the next morning I was out of this dull isolated wasteland as quick as my legs could carry me. Being honest, it was a blessing in disguise. I felt very much in the way of their daily life, especially with it being school holiday time.

After five monotonous days in Dunkeld, where the time dragged slower than a Lord of the Rings movie, I arrived in Alexandra with low expectations. However, the seven days I spent here was an enormous improvement on what came before. Firstly, there were a couple of other backpackers working on this particular farm, bringing a level of banter that was seriously lacking during my stint in Dunkeld. In addition to this, I was made to feel more at home by the hosts, and never once did I feel like I was interfering with their daily routine. In fact I am the 290^th person to help out on their farm, so they are well used to having people from abroad stay on their premises.

This particular place is a little different from most farms. It is more along the lines of a farm stay B&B, with a variety of animals on show in the various paddocks to keep their paying guests entertained. Among the creatures on show are chickens, roosters, ducks, cows, horses, donkeys, geese, sheep, a permanently confused goat, and a few crazy dogs that feel the need to follow you everywhere you go!

My tasks were quite varied. I was responsible for looking after the animals (feeding, locking the chickens and ducks up for the night, attempting to lead a dumb cow back into the field from which it escaped from etc) and the general maintenance of the farm (pruning trees, cleaning up cow and horse shit etc). For such a tiny horse, he excretes an astonishing amount of faeces! We also took a journey to a nearby forest to collect wood (only from trees and branches that had already fallen, so extreme environmentalists, there's no need to worry). This provided me with my first taste of operating a chainsaw. Thankfully it was a lot easier to use than I first anticipated and there are no silly stories to report.

While the last two weeks have not gone as smoothly as I had planned, I am glad to have experienced life in rural Australia and have learned a great deal in this short time. However I still have another two and a half months of farm work to endure before my second year visa is granted. A few days is one thing, but slogging away in the middle of nowhere for an extended period of time is quite a different beast indeed. However that is for another day. For now I have seven weeks of travelling to look forward to. On Saturday I fly to Perth where I will start my adventure up the West Coast and Top End of Australia to Darwin, closely followed by two weeks in South Korea. Excitement is building and I will do my best to keep you all posted on my adventures.

Bye for now.

Melbourne, Australia - Footy, Folk and Tram Inspectors

As mentioned previously, Australians in general, and Melbourne natives in particular, love their sport. Whether its rugby, cricket, tennis, horse racing or Internet checkers, the people will hop on board and support their local team. Add English or Kiwi opposition into the equation and that passion increases tenfold. However there is one sport that triumphs over all else, and that is Australian Rules Football, known commonly as AFL, the name of the highest professional league in the country, the Australian Football League.

This peculiar game is similar in many ways to Ireland's national game, Gaelic Football, and indeed it is from this sport that Aussie Rules derived. As a result Irish people are quite familiar with Australia's national pastime. However to those people from any of the other 200 plus countries on this globe, AFL may come across as a tad confusing, to put things very mildly indeed.

About a month ago I acquired a ticket to the big rival game between Carlton and Essendon, held at Melbourne's iconic MCG. A large crowd of 78,000 were in attendance to witness a classic clash between two historic clubs with the game ending in a draw, something of a rarity in this sport. The atmosphere was hopping, and I personally enjoyed the experience a lot, allowing me to witness first hand how obsessive and passionate the people of Melbourne are about this game.

However it helped that I had a reasonable understanding of the basics of the sport. For somebody from the Netherlands, Mexico or Japan for example, the experience would more than likely be one of brain teasing confusion. The first time anybody sits down and watches this game it comes across as nothing but organised chaos. Basically it is a game played between two teams of 18 players, using an oval ball, on an enormous oval shaped cricket pitch. At each end there are four goal posts; two tall inner ones, with two smaller outer ones to accompany them. 6 points are awarded for booting the ball between the two middle posts, a score which is referred to as a goal. Should one be a little inaccurate, a "Behind" can still be scored as long as the ball goes between one of the inner posts and the outer post, to which a fairly useless consolation of 1 point is awarded. Players tend to tackle each other by doing whatever they see fit, and quite often there is about 10-12 players in a sort of make shift huddle trying to reclaim the football from underneath a sea of bodies. It sounds confusing enough right? You get the general idea so I won't go too much further into the rules . However if one gives it enough of an investment in time, it is not difficult to be won over by the drama, excitement and passion of "footy" as the locals like to call it.

Melbourne is the spiritual home of the game and boasts 9 of the 17 AFL teams (10 if you include nearby Geelong). The game is also extremely popular in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory. However Queensland and New South Wales remain unconvinced and the natives of these two states are still very much Rugby League fans first and foremost. It is also worth noting that the AFL has the second largest average attendance for a league in world sport, behind only the NFL in the USA, and ahead of football leagues in Europe such as England's Premier League and Spain's La Liga. When living in Melbourne, there certainly is no getting away from the popularity of this game. It is just a shame it is not marketed to short term tourists more. Many backpackers from Europe who I have met over the last few months have never heard of AFL!

Yesterday provided me with another unique Australian experience, and that was the iconic Australian country/ folk singer John Williamson in concert with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra at the intimate Palms at Crown Casino. I am not exaggerating one bit when I say it was one of the best musical performances I have witnessed in the flesh. To put things into an Irish context, Mr Williamson would be the Australian equivalent of Christy Moore or Ronnie Drew. All his songs are written about his homeland, and range from emotional to entertaining and utterly ridiculous. For example, there is his legendary musical gag "Old Man Emu", a tune written about the glory of Australia's long necked large non-flying bird who he claims can "Run the pants off a Kangaroo". Then there is the unofficial national anthem of Australia "Waltzing Matilda", a song about a swagman camping in the loneliness of the Australian Bush, with his only companion being his swag (a waterproof bedroll for camping) which he deliriously named "Matilda". Listening to the lyrics of all these songs gave me a warm sense of pleasure that I am living in this wonderful country, with such a diverse landscape, friendly people, and unique, only-to-be-found-here, wildlife. The stories he told in between songs were no less entertaining, and I cannot recommend his music highly enough. A real Aussie experience that most foreigners will never witness, due to a lack of knowledge of this artist's existence. To cap things off nicely I got a quick photo (see below) with the man himself afterwards as he was signing copies of his recent albums.

However, there is one aspect of Melbourne which I do not like one bit, and that relates to the city's trams. Now there is nothing wrong with the actual trams themselves. They do a fairly decent job getting one around the city in an efficient manner, and I would actually go so far to say that Melbourne's transport system in general is in fact excellent. No the problem actually relates to the egotistical police cop like figures known officially as "Revenue Protection Officers", but to the general population as miserable tram inspectors.

These people basically scan the tram network "providing customer service", i.e. checking to ensure passengers hold a valid ticket for their journey. It is not so much what they do that is the problem, but in fact how they go about doing it. It is not unusual to see, at the one time, six inspectors hop onto an empty tram of no more than six or seven passengers, and approach customers in an arrogant manner in the hope of busting somebody. When such an event occurs, they all congregate around the offender, like sheep in an Irish field, all no doubt delighted that their ego-boosting journey has had some success. Quite often these officers will act in a condescending manner towards the people they have caught, who quite often genuinely forgot to validate a ticket that they had pre-purchased. Once they have caught somebody they make their exit from the vehicle, all together, and join the next tram simultaneously. Why six people are needed to monitor a tram of as many passengers is beyond anyone's comprehension. A pure sign that the recession has not hit the land down under with any sort of vigor.

Oh but it only gets worse. A fine for not holding a valid ticket on the Melbourne trams is a deflating $172. However should a passenger have his or her feet on any of the cheaply manufactured seats, then an identical fine is issued. Crazy I hear you say? Well it is about to get more shocking. A drink driving offense in Victoria is a mere $119. Yes, in this country, it is seen as a greater offence to add a few specs of dirt to a seat than it is to put somebody's life at risk. There is something seriously messed up about that, and I want answers to such lunacy!

I'll be back again with more stories. Until then, take it easy.

Melbourne, Australia - Running around in circles

What follows is an article I wrote for an online running magazine about a month or so ago. As it relates very much to my time here in Melbourne I have decided to put it on this travel blog as well.

There are very few things that Australians don’t do well it seems (their very un-festive Christmas Day on the beach being one of them of course!). While the rest of the world suffers from a never ending recession and falling currencies this proud nation has withstood most of what the Global Economic Crisis has thrown at it and has become the number one emigration destination for Europeans desperate to avoid the farcical levels of unemployment that are plaguing the European Union, and Ireland in particular.

Notwithstanding the recent detrimental floods to hit Queensland this country more often than not is baked in burning sunshine providing an ideal climate for surfing, beach volleyball and indeed any type of outdoor activity. Australians certainly love their sport and their lifestyle is very much exercise driven as a result. In addition the land down under is also one of the world’s great holiday destinations with an abundance of unique wildlife, buzzing cities, and astonishing coastal and bushland scenery.

Track and field is another area where this country is currently excelling with numerous athletes claiming Olympic and World Championship medals over the last few years. In particular Steve Hooker has shown himself to be almost unbeatable in the Pole Vault and has his sights set on Sergei Bubka’s iconic world record, and Sally Pearson is shaping up to be one of the prime contenders for sprint hurdles gold at the London Olympics next year.

However this strength extends far beyond the elite level of the sport. Throughout Melbourne and the rest of Victoria the governing body Athletics Victoria runs a state wide inter-club track and field competition called the AV Shield. The championship is divided into 6 regions and incorporates 13 track meets from October to February with the top clubs qualifying for the AV Shield final.

Each athlete can compete in as many different events as he or she wishes with many people attempting as much as possible in order to score more points for their respective clubs. It is not unusual to see somebody warming up for a Javelin competition just minutes after running a lung-bursting 1500m. The idea behind the AV Shield is to get as many people of all ages, abilities, shapes and sizes competing in track and field. There is of course a strong competitive element to it with every club aiming to qualify for the Grand Final but the main emphasis is on getting people to actually enjoy competing in this great sport and not being afraid to give a new event a try.

Through the kindness of Richmond Harriers AC I got the opportunity to participate in a couple of these meets as a trial member giving me the chance to experience this great competition first hand. One of the big concerns people have (myself included) when joining running clubs and signing up for competitions is that everybody else will be much faster. The questions “will I be quick enough?”, “will there be other people there who run to my level?” etc. crop up time and time again. The AV Shield banishes any such worries. Each event is graded with the fastest people running together and the slowest doing likewise. If 65 seconds is as fast as you can sprint 400m then not to worry, you will simply be paired with other runners with similar personal bests. This gives everybody a proper sense of actual competition and a chance to win a race rather than simply running against the clock. Of course you always get the odd person who will enter a slower race just to claim a victory but thankfully this is a rare occurrence.

Athletics Victoria and the local clubs have really fostered a great culture of grassroots athletics and after seeing such a well organised event that caters to absolutely everybody it makes me feel quite sad that such a setup does not exist in Ireland.

There has been a huge running boom throughout the Western World in general and Ireland in particular over the last few years with more and more people signing up for road races such as 10Ks, Marathons and Ultra Marathons. Record numbers ran in last year’s Dublin Marathon and it appears that ploughing through the muscle aching torture of the iconic distance is becoming more and more popular among recreational runners.

Getting specific about my own country though this mass participation success does not tell the full story about the state of the sport. While the popularity of road running is at an all-time high track and field is suffering from low participation numbers. The reason for this is simple; there is no structure in place to develop a grassroots culture in the sport. In Dublin there are graded meets which is the closest thing we have to Victoria’s AV Shield. However such an event still attracts mainly runners who are of a high level and a 2:30 runner for 800m would be very quickly dropping off the pace in even the slowest race. In Ireland there very much exists an elite culture when it comes to track and field. If you are a 55 second runner for 400m there is no future for you in the sport which is why so many give up and end up running marathons or other road races.

Maybe if we took a leaf out of Athletics Victoria’s book and got more of the average Joes running 400m, 800m etc. rather than just road running events then perhaps our country would have a much greater interest in the sport of Athletics. Just a thought Athletics Ireland if you’re reading!

For good measure, here are some pictures from the recent Melbourne Track Classic at Olympic Park.

With Sally Pearson of Australia, Olympic Silver medallist in the 100m Hurdles in Beijing.

With Bernard Lagat of the USA (formerly of Kenya), the second fastest runner of all time over 1500m, twice a World Champion and twice an Olympic medallist.

With Craig Mottram of Australia, World Championship bronze medallist over 5000m in 2005

With David Rudisha of Kenya, the fastest man in history over 800m. 1:41.01! Enough said!

Melbourne, Australia - Standing up to the Bullies

For the most part Australians are very friendly and welcoming people. They are usually always up for a bit of craic and are quite similar to the Irish in terms of their sense of humour and liking for a night in the bar. However this is not to say that everybody I have met in this wonderful country have provided pleasant encounters. What follows are two examples of how certain people down here try to con backpackers. But unfortunately for such people this particular traveller was not one to be fooled. Out of respect for the other parties involved I will not be mentioning their names here, not that they actually deserve such consideration.

First up, the landlords. Within a few days of arriving in Melbourne I found a place that I was happy to move into. The rent wasn't too expensive, I had my own room, all bills and Internet included, and situated very close to the trains and trams. However it didn't take me long to realise that the two landlords were not experts in the field of property management and were clearly on a get rich quick scheme. Anytime something broke in the house (a very regular occurrence) they were usually pretty slow about getting such problems rectified and would usually try to fob us off with some sort of nonsense. However regardless of the extremely poor maintenance I was starting to get nicely settled into my new accommodation and was prepared to put up with a lot of the landlords annoying habits. However, then disaster struck. During one February evening, out of absolutely nowhere, came severe flash floods which reduced Melbourne to chaos. Ok, it was nothing in comparison to the horrible scenes from Queensland that we have witnessed on our television screens, but at the same time it was the worst I had ever encountered personally. Three and a half hours were spent travelling home from work as a result of trams breaking down and after such a torturous journey I was greeted upon arrival with the most unwelcome gift of all - my room had got soaked!

Yes, while I was on my way home from work my room got flooded due to the heavy rain breaking through the extremely dodgy roof, soaking my bed and about 40% of the carpet in the process. The next morning I eventually got through to one of the landlords and proceeded to give him an earful and he quickly arranged for somebody to come around and fix the roof. However no consideration was given towards the wet carpet which was ever so quickly providing an ideal habitat for mould and bacteria to thrive. I made a request to have the carpet either cleaned or replaced, to which the landlord rather arrogantly stated that he fully intends to let the carpet dry naturally. Despite my many references to the room being unhealthy to live in under such conditions he stood firm and fully intended to do nothing about the problem whatsoever.

Enough was enough and I made the journey into Consumer Affairs Victoria to find out my rights with regards repairs. The very helpful lady informed me that I needed to fill out a non-urgent repairs request and if the problem wasn't attended to within 14 days then the landlord would be in serious trouble. I also found out that the deposit I had paid at the start of my lease had never been lodged with the Bond Authority, which is a serious offence under the Residential Tenancy Act. After I communicated this information to the landlord, he then proceeded to tell me that I would have to leave the premises within 28 days. He was basically trying to evict me simply because I was stating my rights. Something didn't seem quite right about all of this as a minimum of 60 days notice needs to be provided to a tenant when giving a notice to vacate for a lease of less than 6 months. Again I consulted Consumer Affairs, who informed me that everything they were trying to do was illegal. When I told the landlord this he then tried to evict me immediately "for my own safety" as the room was "not fit for human inhabitation". Unbelievable. This chancer kept changing his story every time I slapped him in the face with a piece of legislation.

At this stage I was well and truly sick of all the rubbish he was throwing at me and so I spoke with a representative in the complaints department. After informing him about the details of the case he then phoned the landlord regarding the various issues. According to the representative, the landlord was absolutely petrified and started to panic over the phone. He admitted that he knew that his reasons and methods for trying to evict me were completely illegal but that he was angry at the time and so wasn't thinking logically. To cut a long story short, within the space of a few days, I managed to turn an immediate notice to vacate into a brand new carpet and got my deposit lodged safely with the bond authority. Too many backpackers down here just accept what landlords tell them and are too afraid to state their rights and so settle for any sort of rubbish as a result. But in reality if people just stand up for themselves and use the law to their advantage, then chancers like these two guys do not have a leg to stand on.

If you think these guys were bad then wait for the next story. Upon arriving in Melbourne I was shocked at how expensive everything was here. The Euro was struggling badly against the Australian Dollar and so I needed to start earning local currency as soon as I possibly could. For this reason I accepted a poorly paid call centre job so I could stop living off the Euro and in the meantime look for a proper form of employment. I ended up lasting 5 weeks in this place (much to my own amazement). The rate of pay was 17 dollars an hour, but even stranger was the fact that instead of being paid as an employee under a Tax File Number (TFN), I was actually hired as a contractor on an Australian Business Number (ABN). Something seemed odd about this but for awhile I didn't bother questioning it. However after a few weeks my patience started growing thin with how dishonest everybody who worked within the organisation seemed to be, with most of the sales representatives, who are based in India, full on lying to customers in a pathetic attempt to make sales. The whole operation was nothing but a scam and after 5 weeks I was happy to leave.

The following week, myself and a friend from home, who was also working in this organisation, took a journey into the Fair Work Ombudsman to make enquiries about the work practices that were being adopted by this business. After discussions with two representatives we were informed that we should never have been hired as contractors but rather casual employees. To be a contractor you usually are required to dictate the hours of work, the rate of pay, write up invoices and provide your own materials to the place of work. None of this happened during my 5 weeks. I was trained to do a job that I was supposedly being contracted to do, I was told when to go on lunch, where to sit, when I could leave, if I needed to stay longer, and provided no materials to my place of work except for my brain.

We gathered all sorts of complex information from the Ombudsman for Fair Work. As a casual employee I should have been entitled to a base wage (16.58 per hour in this instance) plus 25% casual loading for a casual employee + 15% shift loading when a shift finishes between 7pm and midnight (which was about 90% of my shifts), along with 9% superannuation added on top of all this for good measure. Including superannuation my hourly rate should have been $25.30, a far cry from the $17 dollars I was being paid. Once all the information was gathered, myself and my friend carefully drafted a professional looking email stating all the facts behind this "sham contract" and attached a spreadsheet calculating the total amount we were each underpaid. Over the course of just 5 weeks I was underpaid by $1,157 and my friend was shafted over 8 weeks by an amount just under $2,000. In the email we gave them 7 days to provide us with a satisfactory response and to credit our bank accounts, otherwise it would be necessary for the Ombudsman for Fair Work to intervene on our behalf and investigate work practices within their organisation further. Lets just say the money was sitting in my account within 48 hours!!

It is known fact that backpackers get dreadfully underpaid in Australia but for some reason people just seem to accept this treatment and not bother to do anything about such injustice. Again people are too afraid to state their rights and easily get scared away when such employers mention that they will get their lawyers involved. The fact of the matter is that what these guys were doing to the two of us was highly illegal and like the landlords above had no leg to stand on at all. Now I have $1,157 extra in my bank account which will go along way towards my trip around the West Coast later in the year. More people should do the same.

I hope that by writing this blog that people who are thinking of moving to Australia over the coming months and years will be made aware of some of scam artists that exist and to not be afraid to exercise the law for ones own protection. It is there for a reason.

That's all for now.

Melbourne, Australia - Metropolitan Paradise

As previously mentioned Melbourne is possibly the most sports-orientated city on the entire planet. However this city provides so much more and whether you are just on holiday or indeed living here for an extended period of time there is no shortage of things to see and do.

I have certainly been one to complain about modern buildings being far uglier than their predecessors and in my previous blogs the cities of Santiago and Montevideo got a verbal trashing with regards to this. As a general rule; the older the city, the more beautiful it is. However Melbourne is an example of a modern metropolis which can provide an exception to such general guidelines. The city is simply stunning with a countless number of large urban parks, giving one the feel that you are a million miles away from an area that houses almost 4 million people. There is simply no shortage of places in Melbourne where one can escape for a picnic or a kick around, with Fitzroy Gardens, Carlton Gardens, Albert Park and the most beautiful of all, the Royal Botanic Gardens being among the most popular.

Situated very close to the centre of the city, the Royal Botanic Gardens provides 38 hectares of landscaped gardens consisting of a mix of native and non-native vegetation including over 10,000 individual species. Heaven for nature lovers. For me however, the Gardens provide a different attraction: the world famous Tan Track, more affectionately known to Melbourne natives as "The Tan". This is a 3.827 kilometre tan coloured stone surfaced marked running trail which circumnavigates the Royal Botanic Gardens. Easily the most popular part of Melbourne for runners and joggers, this trail attracts hundreds of people a day, of all shapes and sizes. It is not just the average Joe who uses this fantastic facility however. Many running legends such as Steve Ovett, Hicham El Guerrouj and Sonia O'Sullivan have rubbed shoulders with the general public on The Tan. To date my personal best for the course is 16 minutes 44 seconds, a time I expect to improve upon come the winter road running season.

There are two specific areas which provide a stunning view of Melbourne. The first being from the top of the Shrine of Remembrance, an attractive building dedicated to all Australians who lost their lives in World Wars I and II. From here you get the most perfect perspective of just how green Melbourne is with its many parks visible well into the distance. The other area that brings me personal viewing pleasure is on the bridge crossing over the Yarra river from the Royal Botanic Gardens to the various sports stadiums and arenas in Richmond. On a sunny day there are very few urban places that can compare to this: the amazing Gardens on the left, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on the right, the Yarra meandering ahead, and the city's modern skyscrapers watching over all this from a distance. It is the perfect combination of nature and modern infrastructure, a fusion of old and new.

Although the city is less than 200 years old, it still boasts some impressive architecture. Now of course it is never going to rival anything Cusco, Stockholm or Edinburgh have to offer but considering the lack of history in Australia this is hardly surprising. Among the most picturesque is Flinders Street Station. This flashy yellow bricked building has long been the meeting point for Melbournians who congregate "under the clocks", referring to the row of clocks above the main entrance. Other attractive buildings include St Paul's Cathedral, the Parliament of Victoria, and the Royal Exhibition Building, the last of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

However, as previously mentioned, what this city does better than most is its ability to mix old with new, and right across the street from this century old railway station is Federation Square, the futuristic and artsy civic centre of Melbourne. This area plays host to many concerts that celebrate the mix of cultures in Australia and also has a big screen, allowing sports mad people to congregate to watch the big events together. In my humble opinion Federation Square forms a perfect contrast to nearby Flinders Street Station and St Paul's Cathedral, and this mix of ancient and modern works very well.

Another highlight of Melbourne is the sports district as I like to call it, situated in Richmond. Within this area you will find most of the city's big sports stadia and arenas. The Melbourne Cricket Ground takes centre stage of course, but there is also the Melbourne Park tennis grounds, Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, Olympic Park, AAMI Arena along with some smaller sports and training grounds, all within a couple of hundred metres of the Yarra River and the numerous park lands nearby. As a sports fanatic this is obviously my favourite part of the city. Melbourne simply couldn't have picked a better setting for its favourite past time.

This city also provides a vibrant bar scene with Brunswick Street, Acland Street, Fitzroy Street and Chapel Street being the most popular, providing so much choice for one's drinking and live music needs. It's just a shame that the price of alcohol is so expensive and I would recommend anybody travelling here for a holiday to get their ticker checked out before arriving, as 10 dollars for a pint of Carlton Draught in certain places could bring on severe palpitations for the unprepared and unwarned tourist.

Melbourne is not particularly known for its beaches and the hugely touristy St Kilda Beach is one of the most unremarkable parts of the city I have seen to date. Perhaps the reason why more Irish people flock to Sydney rather than its younger and brighter brother (in my opinion) is due to that city having much more so called better beaches. However Brighton Beach, located just 30 minutes by train from the city centre, provides Melbourne with a hidden gem, one which rivals Sydney's Manly Beach in terms of beauty, and which wipes the floor with Bondi Beach, one of the world's most overrated places. Brighton Beach is not particularly touristy with very few bars and restaurants within walking distance from the shore, but rather is a place where the locals like to chill with their family after a hard working week. What makes this rather upmarket beach so special however is the numerous multi-coloured beach huts which run parallel to the shore. This is an area which would bring the photographer out in even the most unenthusiastic person.

Last weekend I journeyed out to the suburb of Sandringham where I accidentally encountered the stunning Red Bluff, a steep cliff filled with fascinating rock formations. There was literally not a tourist in sight and indeed my housemate who has lived in Melbourne for years said to me that he has never even heard of the place. It is little gems like this that I will continue to search for over my remaining time in this magnificent city.

Bye for now.